After Hours Events - Ask Questions and Share Experiences Here

[brockash]

It may be, however, it was really congested only having one way to walk, so it made it hard to wade through so many people all trying to do the same thing. I just do not understand closing 1/2 of the walkway and feel it really was a bad option for the party.

Absolutely. It's an expensive special event. There is no reason they shouldn't have the path, at the very least, open during that time.

 

[KSL]

Does Disney produce paper maps for the AH events (if so, does anyone have one for Epcot AH that they could post? I admittedly have not read all 700+ replies to this thread, so if there's one in here somewhere please point me to it)? From what I'm reading about the Epcot AH events, we need to have a strategy planned. Knowing what's running (or supposed to be running, at least) and where the snack carts are in advance would be helpful.

 

[Lsdolphin]

Do drink/ice cream locations change if it rains/storms or still via uncovered carts ?

 

[PrincessNelly]

I'm late uploading our experience but we did HS after hours on May 17th and it was amazing!

We arrived at 6:40 and were in the park by 6:50.
We headed to Roundup Rodeo BBQ for our 7:05 reservation. (Dinner was fabulous btw)
Runaway Railway 8:50 (10 min wait)
We watch the projection show for a little bit.
Rise of the Resistance 9:26 (walk on)
We decided to catch the second showing of Fantasmic. They allowed AH guest to pick up free drinks and popcorn at the cart just before entering which was great!
We did some shopping!
Ran into Donald & Daisy
Tower of Terror 11:25 (walk on)
Stopped for ice cream sandwiches
Toy Story Midway Mania 12:00 (walk on)
Watched the green army men band 12:17
Slinky Dog Dash 12:24 (15 minute wait)
Grabbed more snacks & drinks

RnR was still down for refurbishment, we also skipped Smugglers Run, Star Tours, and Aliens. But honestly we did everything at a leisurely pace and could have easily done those things of we wanted.

10/10 experience. Worth every penny.

 

[Lsdolphin]

Just came back from HS AH tonite….it was great experience rode everything we wanted and walked onto TSM 7x. The drink/ice cream set up over by Muppets did run out of water but still had other drinks and expected to get more water when we’re there around 10:45. There were 2 stands in Toy Story Land that just had drinks and boxes of popcorn sitting out for people to grab as they walked by. A few shops were open and empty. we definitely felt event was worth the upcharge And would do it again,

 

[CAPSLOCK]

We decided to catch the second showing of Fantasmic. They allowed AH guest to pick up free drinks and popcorn at the cart just before entering which was great!

Awesome!

 

[kmc8826]

Does Disney produce paper maps for the AH events (if so, does anyone have one for Epcot AH that they could post? I admittedly have not read all 700+ replies to this thread, so if there's one in here somewhere please point me to it)? From what I'm reading about the Epcot AH events, we need to have a strategy planned. Knowing what's running (or supposed to be running, at least) and where the snack carts are in advance would be helpful.

I don’t have the handout anymore but I recall stands by Imagination, by Canada, and by Guardians.

We did HS AH on June 14 and EP AH on June 15. This was a quick trip with my girls and elderly grandparents where we did two days at Universal and then the two AH parties. My mom was in a wheelchair (started renting after first day at Universal) and my dad could have used one too. Both parties ended up being worth it to us because while I have an AP it was an easy way to do Disney with the grandparents and my oldest without having to buy regular theme park tickets.

Obviously HS was overall a better experience but I think that was because of the park versus the spread out nature of Epcot. Last summer we did the DVC Moonlight Magic at both HS and AK and had similar experience…basically I think parties work better at some parks versus others. Epcot had rather loud DJ dance party being broadcast over the sound system. It was too much and rather annoying. (Although my daughter ranting over her hatred over remixed songs did not help).

For people in similar situations I think the AH parties are a great option. We liked HS better but EP seemed to be just finding its way. We did Nemo, Living with Land, Soarin, Remy, Spaceship Earth, and ended with Guardians. At that point in the night it had been raining and TT was down so Guardians took a long time. We had about another hour we could have stayed but everyone was just tired. We were staying at Dolphin and my parents could not even deal with walking back to the Gateway so we did the bus. I think we were all especially bedraggled and pathetic looking because one of the bus drivers hooked us up and took us directly to Dolphin. That was an unexpected surprise and somewhat restored my faith in Disney…which I have basically been fairly negative as of late.

I am happy to try to answer questions.

 

[mab2012]

For people in similar situations I think the AH parties are a great option.

Thanks for the review! We have a similar plan for a short trip in August. We will do Epcot AH and MNSSHP. (I will also try for Typhoon Lagoon Moonlight Magic during the open reservation window, but that's a long shot.) For our dates it is cheaper than buying day tickets, especially with the DVC discount, and we don't really want to be in the parks all day in the August heat anyway.

We did Epcot Moonlight Magic last year, and the reviews I'm seeing for AH so far sound similar to our experience with MM. Long lines almost everywhere, and we had trouble finding popcorn and ice cream carts. Remy went down, which pushed up wait times at other rides, and also meant we had to walk across the park and back again to ride it later. I think you're right that it's just not the ideal environment for an after-hours event, but I have an idea of what we're getting into, and I'm okay with it. The takeaway for me is that I need to have modest expectations and a good plan.

What I'm not sure of yet is exactly what that plan should look like. Priority is Guardians, of course, since we haven't ridden it yet. Any advice on when it would be best to ride it? At tonight's party it was still showing a 50 minute wait just before 1 am. I forgot to check earlier on wait times. Not sure I want to leave it to the end of the night and risk missing it if it goes down, but if the wait earlier in the evening is much longer we might take the chance and use the "jump-in-line-before-close-and-hope-the-wait-time-is-inflated" strategy.

Remy was only 10 minutes at the end of the night, so that's encouraging. TT and Soarin' were around 25.

 

[bdthebrave]

Thanks for the review! We have a similar plan for a short trip in August. We will do Epcot AH and MNSSHP. (I will also try for Typhoon Lagoon Moonlight Magic during the open reservation window, but that's a long shot.) For our dates it is cheaper than buying day tickets, especially with the DVC discount, and we don't really want to be in the parks all day in the August heat anyway.

We did Epcot Moonlight Magic last year, and the reviews I'm seeing for AH so far sound similar to our experience with MM. Long lines almost everywhere, and we had trouble finding popcorn and ice cream carts. Remy went down, which pushed up wait times at other rides, and also meant we had to walk across the park and back again to ride it later. I think you're right that it's just not the ideal environment for an after-hours event, but I have an idea of what we're getting into, and I'm okay with it. The takeaway for me is that I need to have modest expectations and a good plan.

What I'm not sure of yet is exactly what that plan should look like. Priority is Guardians, of course, since we haven't ridden it yet. Any advice on when it would be best to ride it? At tonight's party it was still showing a 50 minute wait just before 1 am. I forgot to check earlier on wait times. Not sure I want to leave it to the end of the night and risk missing it if it goes down, but if the wait earlier in the evening is much longer we might take the chance and use the "jump-in-line-before-close-and-hope-the-wait-time-is-inflated" strategy.

Remy was only 10 minutes at the end of the night, so that's encouraging. TT and Soarin' were around 25.

I was checking last night fairly often from 10-11 and Guardians seemed to hover around 20 minutes during that timeframe FWIW.

 

[disney castle days]

Went to Epcot AH last night.

The skyliner was down so waited about 30 mins for a bus from Riveria and got into the park at 7:40.
Went to test track first because I was afraid it would got down again. Did single rider and waited 20 mins.
Next was Nemo which was a walk on.
By then it was 8:45 ish.
did Spaceship earth, was posted at 5 and was a walk on.
Went to soarin which was posted at 15 but took about 7.
Living with the land next was completely empty, had the whole boat to myself.
Got a water from the cart btwn land and imagination pavilions
Then figment which was a walk on.
GotG was posted at 25 and it was about 20 to the show room.
At that point it was 10:45, so I grabbed popcorn and a soda and decided to call it a night because I had been up since 4:45 since we flew in that morning.

The good parts:
- Guardians had a low wait and ran most of the time
- future world was empty and almost everything was walk on
- the DJ was awesome!
The bad parts:
- the snack stands are VERY clustered, almost all in the test track area
- the world showcase area to France was packed and Remys was consistently pretty high (it was 45 mins until the last ~15 mins I was there)
- not a lot of cast members around. I was trying to find out if the skyliner was up and walked from Connections to Canada before I found a cm

 

[unbanshee]

Does Disney produce paper maps for the AH events (if so, does anyone have one for Epcot AH that they could post? I admittedly have not read all 700+ replies to this thread, so if there's one in here somewhere please point me to it)? From what I'm reading about the Epcot AH events, we need to have a strategy planned. Knowing what's running (or supposed to be running, at least) and where the snack carts are in advance would be helpful.

https://blogmickey.com/2023/06/epco...inting-debut/#h-epcot-after-hours-event-guide

 

[KSL]

https://blogmickey.com/2023/06/epco...inting-debut/#h-epcot-after-hours-event-guide

Thank you!! That's exactly what I was hoping for & I appreciate you posting it!

 

[carimar]

We did AH at DHS on 6/21 and AH at Epcot last night.

HS- we got through the gate at 6:45 and started with Muppets then Star Tours considering their low wait times. We headed to SWL for our 8:30 Oga’s and by 9:15, we were ready to party. We did Rise which was pretty much a walk-on. Skipped MFSR cuz we’re not crazy about that ride and headed to TSL. Rode Slinky with about a 20 min wait then headed to TSMM which was walk-on.

Outside TSMM was a cart, so we grabbed Mickey bars and waters. The line below slinky was really long for some reason!

We then headed to RnRC and did that twice. Could have done it 10 times since there was no wait at all. Then did ToT w no wait, headed back to Slinky for a 30 minute wait and finished off with MMRR after a projection show about movies on the theater. No wait for MMRR. Left after and it was 12:20pm

Two thumbs up!

EP: let in the gate at 6:45 and rode Guardians with ILL. Since the reviews from the first week, I decided to purchase ILL to ensure us riding it since we’re big Marvel fans.
THIS RIDE IS UNBELIEVABLE!

Our goals for this event was not to ride as many rides as we could but wanted to take advantage of the food offerings at Flower and Garden and ride Guardians. We headed to France, then Morocco, then Japan, then China, finishing off with some drinks in Mexico right as the evening show was starting at 9pm.

We headed to Norway to ride Frozen, but they loaded us at the back of the day guest standby line, which was pretty long, so we left. I knew we wouldn’t be back since the layout of the park is not conducive to ride rides back to back.

We headed over to Guardians which was about a 10 minute wait. I would suggest anyone who’s interested in this ride to squeeze it in at 9pm and ride it as much as you can while you’re there. That’s when wait time is the lowest. We rode it twice and headed over to Soarin’. We skipped TT because it seems like small potatoes after the thrill of Guardians. Soarin’ was a walk-on.

We grabbed snacks outside of the Land and headed out. DH was zonked from a conference and I had been at MK during the day. We essentially got out of the evening what we wanted- amazing food at the booths and Guardians x3. It was only 11pm when we left, but with more energy, we could have covered the rest of the rides.

 

[krismom345]

Hoping to do the Epcot AH mid July, but hesitant to buy tix- anyone know if they traditionally sell out early, and I’m guessing the event is rain or shine?
Thanks for any tips

 

[sdeut]

Hoping to do the Epcot AH mid July, but hesitant to buy tix- anyone know if they traditionally sell out early, and I’m guessing the event is rain or shine?
Thanks for any tips

It doesn’t seem like Epcot has so far and with the poor reviews of the Epcot AH event it would surprise me if it would now.

 

[Jerseyprincess317]

Does anyone know what characters at meeting at the EPCOT event?

 

[carimar]

Does anyone know what characters at meeting at the EPCOT event?

We saw Chip and Dale dancing along with the dj last night.

 

[jenjersnap]

We just returned from our trip in which we did the DHS AH on 6/14 and the EP AH on 6/22.

We had a wonderful time at the DHS AH. We went also in March and they seem to really have gotten all aspects down to a science at this point. I did, once again, purchase a Rise LL for the transition post 7 pm time which helps efficient touring immensely.

Generally, our EP AH was a success but I do have one piece of advice. Don’t bother entering the park before 7 pm, if you have other tickets, because the front is the only place to scan your ticket and get your wristband - unlike any other AH I have attended. In fact, they required you to exit the park completely and return through a separate line. We had adrs at Space 220 lounge and paid LL for Cosmic Rewind so, by the time we needed our wristbands, it was challenging trying to return with everyone else leaving, like salmon swimming upstream, lol. We never did find popcorn, I guess our timing was off because the few places we tried were always out, but that’s a small quibble. We enjoyed the dj and music playing throughout the park. We did Remy last and grabbed a Lyft from BC afterward. I would do it again, but plan to arrive at 7 pm.

Happy to answer any questions.

 

[Kcnc]

I was checking last night fairly often from 10-11 and Guardians seemed to hover around 20 minutes during that timeframe FWIW.

Yeah it seemed the crowd mentality was to either ride it at the beginning of the party, or as they were leaving, or both.

 

[Kcnc]

Have you been able to do this? Or anyone else here? I know when I try to buy Genie+ on any other day (just to test) it says I'm not eligible. So does an After Hours ticket make you eligible?

To follow-up on this discussion, PlanDisney is saying it's a no, so maybe things have changed. They didn't answer about an ILL in the 7-9 window though, so if anyone has that answer I'm still curious.

https://plandisney.disney.go.com/qu...chase-genie-day-stack-ll-event-starts-541292/